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BkB is a
co-operative society of self help group under the umbrella of
Catholic Church within Korogocho Community. The name is a
Kiswahili expression meaning shoulder to shoulder.
BkB
started its activities in 1991 with two groups, thus Udada and
Vyondo in making the necklaces and baskets. BkB is legally
registered under the Ministry of culture and social services.
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The following are kind of registration and licenses that BkB
has:
• Certificates of Registration
• Trade and
Export license
• Pin Number
• Hawkers License
The
above documents were acquired in 1996, when BkB started expanding,
thus initiating more groups. So was foreseen to have the above
documents to facilitate business both locally and Internationally.
SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC SITUATION
We are settled in Korogocho area, which
is one of the biggest and largest slums in Nairobi. It’s
situated in eastern part of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.
Korogocho is a name of an old man called Mzee Korogocho who was
one of the first indigenous to settle in Korogocho community. The
old man fought for people’s right, thus has battled with the
colonial chiefs to acquire the land in Korogocho for settlement.
It’s approximated that over 120,000 people live in
Korogocho, where life is harsh and survival is challenge. Majority
of people living here can’t afford the basic necessities of
life and thus live in unfriendly conditions, facing poor shelter,
poor sanitation, poor drainage, poor roads, the poor security of
life and lack of proper medical facilities. It’s the above
community that BkB members have originated. From it’s where
they do their work and their activities.
The living
standard of Korogocho Community is too low compared to other parts
of Nairobi. The mentioned earlier Korogocho residents are very
poor although people are trying as much as they can to get out of
their poverty, We have many street children around who indulge in
drug taking, stealing and other funny characters. We have a large
number of youths who consider stealing as their career since they
have completed their education and they could not get employment
anywhere, so they find the best option is stealing and its through
this habit of the youth inside Korogocho webs making the security
of the area to be at its risk. Many people are robbed and snatched
their belongings each and everyday, thus the security has became a
worrying problem in the area. This is due to hard economic
situation in our country.
Also because of many problems and
hardships in the area, majority of people have indulged in
alcoholic drinking, thus they get no option in life. They find the
best thing for them to forget their problems is through drinking.
Also we see that many girls aged from 15-20 years and above are
engaged in prostitution, they sell their body through sex so that
they may get money to survive. The prostitution has increased the
number of people with Aids in the area. The single mothers who
have children and no husband, they are engaged in alcoholic
brewing business which promote drunkardness. This alcoholic
drinking have became a worrying problem in the area since majority
of the people consuming the drink engage themselves in bad
activities.
The main products coming from Korogocho area
are agricultural and handicraft creations. In Korogocho, greater
part of old women is engaged in small scale farming along the
riverbanks. They plant cabbages, tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc.
in little quantity, as they have a small portion of land –
whatever they produce they take a part to their families and the
remaining they sell to the local people at affordable prices.
The Bega Kwa Bega members make handicraft products. We
sell our creations in local and worldwide market. The goods are as
follows:
• Baskets
• Necklaces & jewelry
•
Tie & dye
• Furniture, shoe making, etc.
This
economic activity has helped men, women, girls and boys in one way
or another to solve their problem of unemployment.
THE
AIMS OF BEGA KWA BEGA
• To fight the problem of
unemployment within Korogocho slum.
• To improve its
members social, economic and spiritual welfare.
• To
rehabilitate and instill dignity in some of our members.
•
To lift up the living standard of our members.
• To became
a cooperative.
• To be very stable economically.
•
To create a good relationship with existing customers and to
expand the market for our products.
• To reinforce the
capacity of the members to face technical, managing trading.
•
To improve in terms of management and administration.
• To
enhance competitive quality of our products.
• To create
new designs of our products each and every year.
• To
built a stronger unity among the members of different projects in
various areas within country.
BkB does not manage its six
projects, but each group has its own management. In the executive
committee, composed of 12 people, there are 2 members from the
groups. All groups’ members elect the BkB committee every
year in January. The BkB committee acts as a central point of
co-ordination of all the activities taking place within the groups
and the whole project. The main matters are:
• Assisting
in planning and budgeting within the groups;
• Making sure
that the groups follow the objective;
• Following keenly
the activities of each group;
• Coordinating all business
related matters with customers on behalf of the groups;
•
Helping in marketing and advertisement on behalf of the groups;
•
Ensuring those things have been implemented;
• Dispatching
and receiving orders;
• Controlling all the financial
matters within BkB and groups;
• Checking that proper
relationship between BkB and who is achieved.
BkB is
constituted by:
UDADA – started in 1991, there are
27 female members who create and sew necklaces, bracelet, belts,
crosses, etc whit beads, seeds, clay and other kind of
material.
MAMA WA VYONDO – started in 1992, 27
women compose it; the majority of them are single mothers. They
weave basket with sisal-material.
KOCHKANGA –
started in 1997, its members are 12 and make by hands Batikanga
and tie and dye clothes.
DOLLS – Started in 2003
this group composed by 8 women originated from Udada group. They
introduced a new handcraft activity of soft and wire dolls making,
soft animals and bags, table mat all in amusing and ethnic
style
All these groups were formed with the help of the St.
John’s Catholic Church (Kariobangi parish). The project aim
is to enable jobless men, women and young people exposed to the
brutal aspects of life in the slum, especially alcoholism and drug
addiction, crime and prostitution, to generate income enough for
them and their families, to live in dignity and share together the
Word of God.
Our motto is: INJILI, KAZI na USHIRIKIANO
(Gospel, work and solidarity)
LABOUR ORGANISATION
In
our groups we have no fixed monthly salary for each activities but
we normally do what we call piecework, where the amount to be
remunerated is paid according to laid breakdown. Members are paid
according to the work they have done thus the piece in this case,
the more you produce the more you get. Being in the terms of the
piecework depend mostly in quantity of the order to be done. We
have no other jobs, so the more orders we have, the more we can
work.
SELLING AND MARKETING
Inside our country,
we sell the products:
• In BkB showroom, situated near
Babadogo terminal, where the creations are displayed from each and
every group and the customers came and buy;
• In local
exhibition that we arrange;
• We attend organized
exhibition by other people, government and NGO.
The total
percentage sold in internal market is 15% and depends with the
season (from July to August each year we sell more).
We export
85% of our products, so we have acquired export license from
Kenyan Trade Office and we send the items of orders by airfreight
or sea freight.
Usually our foreign customers sent us the
50% of total amount of order, but now it is not enough, because
our production costs is between 70% and 75%, so we have begun a
little revolving fund and we are also starting with a program of
micro credit to cover the remaining costs.
We do work
closely to the customers and to enable us have a good
relationship, through that we can exchange several different ideas
and knowledge and improve our skills.
BkB is a
pilot-project, since the beginning up to now the groups have grown
up in number and our dream is to start other activities involving
much more jobless people. We hope to welcome a new set of five
young women very soon who sew and embroider bed sheet, tablecloth
and child dress. For the next December we desire to help the
informal school of St. John to run the production of soccer ball.
This last project is to give hope to the students of the last
year; with the money they can gain they will be able to pay the
state admission fee of the exam to secondary school.
These
above are our general information, we are at your complete
disposal for every clarification you may need.
In
faith,
Bega Kwa Bega Committee
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